What's a good chemical stripper for the Marlin finishes?

I'm looking to strip the finish off my 336 stock and give it a nice, oil finish before hunting season. What chemical strippers work best for this? I'll be sanding it out to a finer finish too but in the mean time I'd like to get the bulk off and the finish out of the checkering with a stripper.
Thanks in advance for your advice.

Re: What's a good chemical stripper for the Marlin finishes?

Dittos on the CitriStrip. I used the gel (about the consistency of pudding) with good success. Slather it on, give it about 1 to 1-1/2 hours to "work" then used plastic scrapers (i.e. el cheapo putty knives) and toothpicks to remove the bulk of the softened Marshield. A second application pretty well did the trick. With the exception of a 336C forearm that seemed to have about 3 coats of Marshield, and required a third application of the CitriStrip, two applications of the stripper has worked. Follow up with a Mineral Spirit wipe down and some light, judicious sanding (400 grit, IIRC) and the wood was ready to clean-up and re-finish.

Re: What's a good chemical stripper for the Marlin finishes?

Re: What's a good chemical stripper for the Marlin finishes?

All of them are good. In the past, I've used Aircraft Stripper, Old Master's stripper, and at least a couple of other brands I can;t think of right now. Recently, I bought some Citri Strip, which is going to be alot less caustic than the others, but I haven;t tried it yet. I have no doubt it'll be fine and do what I need it to do.

In the end, they all work.

- Stretch®

"If you are a reloader and you don't know Lee, you don't know Jack" (Floydster)

Re: What's a good chemical stripper for the Marlin finishes?

This may not apply, but on older Marlins, when the finish is beginning to deteriorate, it's not too hard to scrape the remaining finish off. It gets brittle and pops off when carefully scraped. I've had a couple where all it took was time and patience and the finish scraped off. The advantage is you don't soak the wood in stripper, and you maintain the patina. I use a small pocket knife. Sometimes it's an option.

“The problem with the world is that the intelligent people are full of doubts, while the stupid ones are full of confidence.”
― Charles Bukowski

Re: What's a good chemical stripper for the Marlin finishes?

My brother-in-law refinishes gunstocks for people. He was telling me about how Brownings have a lacquer finish and the best way to strip it is with a flexible metal scraper like a thin putty knife. Like Tomjohn said, it pops right off.

Since I'm an amateur I'd go with the stripper. I've done a few stocks with it and gotten good results. I used the aerosol Aircraft Stripper.